Technical Assistance to Support the Eastern Cape Department of Education

Detailed description of project Back

The Departments of Education in the Eastern Cape have consistently not addressed financial management issues raised by the Auditor General over the last 6 years, resulting in perceived gross mismanagement and the loss of confidence by the Provincial Administration and the public. The failure to implement robust financial management has resulted in institutionalised corruption and mal-administration, maintained by commissioning consultant reports to create an illusion that action has been taken. In addition service delivery has been compromised. Institutional stability has also been negatively impacted by high turn-over of HODs and CFOs in the institutions.

This scope of this project is centred around the following core areas:

• Effective Financial Management to review current policies, procedures and controls. Once reviewed the resultant implementation shall start;
• Supply Chain Management and specifically the conformance to legislative requirements for the procurement of goods and services.

Specifically, objective the assignment is to address the audit findings as per the Auditor General management report on the regularity audit and the audit of performance information of the Eastern Cape Department of Education for the year ended 31 March 2009 and 2010.

Type of services provided

The core services were provided by Senior SCM Expert. Core Services included:

• Review of the Auditor General opinions and project brief;
• Confirmation of the scope to ensure currency, relevance and exclusions. This may include an assessment of the operational environment of the project;
• Sourcing of internal and external Suppliers;
• Based on the current operational environment (AS-IS), determine and document the desired end state (To-Be) and the shortfall in requirement;
• Prioritisation of the requirements to be implemented;
• Agreement on project budget and timelines;
• The desired end state is rolled-out throughout the organisation;
• Ongoing monitoring, adjustment and refinement.